Posted on 03/11/2014 1:06:15 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Five months and approaching a coupla’ hundred million dollars in federal grants later, Hawaii still hasn’t made much progress on mending their terrifically botched ObamaCare exchange website, and the clock is ticking. With barely a few weeks to go until the open enrollment period ends (for now — I have very little faith that His Highness won’t issue another royal decree somehow extending that deadline, too), the state government is entering panic mode over their super-low enrollment figures and their definitive lack of a long-term financing plan for the exchange, which needs to be self-sustaining by the start of 2015. As of mid-February, only about 4,400 people were signed up for health insurance through ObamaCare — a rather conspicuous dip from the hundred thousand people Gov. Neil Abercrombie once predicted would hop to it:
The exchange had originally planned to stay afloat by collecting a 2% fee on every plan sold through the exchange, but with the slow pace of enrollment and changing federal rules — delaying the employer mandate and allowing canceled plans to continue — Interim Director Tom Matsuda said Wednesday that the math simply does not add up. …
Of the 100,000 uninsured in Hawaii, about half are expected to be eligible for Medicaid — meaning just 50,000 people would buy individual plans through the Health Connector under the best-case scenario. And while Hawaii hoped to sell thousands of plans through the exchange’s small-business marketplace, Matsuda said so few small businesses are eligible for tax credits that officials are simply not seeing the demand. “What people can get on the Connector versus outside the Connector is the same, so there isn’t really a strong incentive for small employers to use the Connector,” he said.
Further complicating matters, only two insurers offer plans on Hawaii’s exchange, so many companies are continuing to rely on their longtime brokers (who, having essentially been cut out of the process, have no incentive to help Hawaiians buy plans on the exchange).
Hence, Hawaiian legislators’ latest proposal to cover their bums includes a plan to start charging a “fee” to insurers that decided not to participate in the state’s exchange.
The fee would help prop up the financially troubled Hawaii Health Connector, which could run out of money to pay its bills by year’s end.
“This is not something we want to do,” said Rep. Angus McKelvey, chairman of the House Consumer Protection and Commerce Committee. “It’s federally mandated that we have to have our exchanges be sustainable.”
The unspecified fee would be charged by the state insurance commissioner until mid-2018, based on the number of people the carrier insures. …
The new insurance fee is part of a flurry of House proposals that were rolled into one overarching bill (HB 2529) now being considered by the Senate. …
A “fee,” i.e., slapping a tax on any insurer (and, subsequently, its customers) that decided it was not in their company’s interest to participate in ObamaCare just yet. As the LA Times piece above notes, there are only two insurers currently participating in Hawaii’s exchange — meaning that, if the proposal passes, everybody else is going to have to pay to subsidize ObamaCare’s poor technical, logistical, and financial functionality in the state. And here I was, thinking that ObamaCare was supposed to improve the market and lower everybody’s costs, or something?
“Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”
George Washington
So... if you could not afford insurance before Obamacare and now you still can’t affoprd then you have to pay a fine!
Now thats some GOOOOD government!
They are thinking , if they destroy the Insurers , then all that money will go to them Obamacare , but Obama’s people thought of it first
hows that free insurance going, obamabots?
And here I was, thinking that ObamaCare was supposed to improve the market and lower everybody’s costs, or something?
That was mistake #2.
The first mistake was believing ANYTHING Obama said.
The power to tax is the power to destroy..........DANIEL WEBSTER and Chief Justice JOHN MARSHALL in the Supreme Court case, McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)...........
Marxist/fascist Democrat bastards. The enemy within.
The Taxed Enough Already Party is the first serious threat to the parasitic hold that Federal Professional Politicians in “both” political parties have on those of us who are Taxed Enough Already.
The Federal Professional Politicians in “both” political parties have been uniting to suppress us since November, 2010.
The Federal Democrats have been, and continue to, suppress us through the brute force of the IRS, DOJ, NSA, and other Gestapo-Style Federal Agencies that we are forced to finance.
The RINOs are suppressing us by their Public statements and critical cave-in votes to Democrats.
Thus, the Federal RINOs and Democrats have united against us.
Fair enough: BRING IT !
_______________________________
Both the RINOs and the Democrats have Professional Politicians who are dependent on their ability to control those of us who still pay Personal Federal Income Taxes, in order to continue to be on our payroll.
What better way to control us than to make us slaves to them who are the masters of us?
“Both” Political Parties in our current Communal Federal Government understand that the purpose of naming a Master/Slave Federal Government Program an “Entitlement” is to deceive the enslaved population into believing that becoming slaves to a Master is something to be desired, and thus reduce the probability of a slave rebellion.
The Master/Slave Entitlement of Obamacare is the most Communal of all of the Federal Government Master/Slave Entitlement Programs, because it can legally collect monies and/or property after death of the Entitled Slave, or from their surviving family members.
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FORWARD, the RINOcare RINOS!
FORWARD, the Obamacare Democrats!!
FORWARD !
Single Payer folks. that’s the dhimmi’s endgame.
Definitely a leftist way of thinking.
There is nothing they won’t tax to death, control, and strangle.
“Hawaii ponders: Time to start taxing insurers for not participating in our ObamaCare exchange”
Brilliant leftist proposal. After all, what could possibly go wrong?
While they’re at it, they should put price controls on everything to make sure products are plentiful and affordable. Followed by a law to keep dangerous tides away and a law to repeal gravity.
This stuff is not hard to figure out if you’re a leftist.
Just a suggestion, Hawaiians: If you receive a bill for not signing up on the exchange, perhaps y’all should send an invoice to them for the promised $2500.
I don’t care what Hawaii does as long as they take their village idiot back.
This will force insurers to consider if they want to offer insurance in Hawaii at all .... damned if they do (low signup, poor pools, having to deal with the exchange mess) and taxed if they don’t. So ..... makes the decision a lot easier to not offer insurance/do business in Hawaii at all and I think that’s what non-exchange insurance companies will do to avoid this “tax”.
If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street,
If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat.
If you get too cold I’ll tax the heat,
If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet.
Scam millions from the people, take absolute control of every American life (except for those in DC and union members) while killing off 99% of the health care industry in one fell swoop. NWO loves it and they are winning!
One would think Hawaii would be legally obligated to offer some sort of representation to justify their threat of taxing the health insurance providers.
Obamacare already calls for a 2% “fee” to be tacked on to policies sold through the exchanges to pay for the operation of the exchange itself.
Problem in Hawaii is, not enough people are buying through the exchange. Hence not enough revenue flow to pay it’s own expenses.
So now they want to tax insurance NOT sold through the exchange. The old Monty Python bit about “tax all foreigners living abroad”.
A whole lot of states will be in this boat now that Obama has decreed “you can keep your policy” for another two years. Look for more creative financing to be put on the table.
What’s crazy is seeing all these Healthcare.gov commercials, with so called participants, claiming they are getting 97 dollar a month plans.
It’s always been about Big Brother having total control over “Healthcare”. Always.
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